SoftBank is back, and the AI hype cycle is eating itself

SoftBank and OpenAI announced a new 50-50 joint venture this week to sell enterprise AI tools in Japan under the brand “Crystal Intelligence.” On paper, it’s a straightforward international expansion deal. But SoftBank’s role as a major investor in OpenAI is raising questions about whether AI’s biggest deals are creating real economic value or just moving money in circles. … Continua a leggere SoftBank is back, and the AI hype cycle is eating itself

Meta brings its short-form video feed of AI slop to Europe

Meta says that since the launch of Vibes, media generation in the Meta AI app has jumped more than tenfold.

Subtle Computing’s voice isolation models help computers understand you in noisy environments

Subtle Computing has raised $6 million in seed funding to build voice-isolation models. The startup plans to announce a hardware device next year.

Inception raises $50 million to build diffusion models for code and text

Diffusion models already power AI image generators, but Inception thinks they can be even more powerful applied in software development.

Google makes it easier to access AI Mode in Chrome on iOS and Android

Users will now be able to access AI Mode via a new dedicated shortcut button under the search bar when opening a “New Tab” page in Chrome.

Microsoft built a fake marketplace to test AI agents — they failed in surprising ways

The research raises new questions about how well AI agents will perform when working unsupervised — and how quickly AI companies can make good on promises of an agentic future.

This startup’s metal stacks could help solve AI’s massive heat problem

Alloy Enterprises has developed a new additive manufacturing technique that can improve liquid cooling performance while bringing it to new parts of the server rack.

Google gets the US government’s green light to acquire Wiz for $32B

Google announced its intent to acquire cloud security company Wiz in March and the deal is now on track to close in early 2026.

SoftBank, OpenAI launch new joint venture in Japan as AI deals grow ever more circular

SoftBank’s joint venture with OpenAI will localize and sell the AI company’s enterprise tech to companies in Japan. And the first customer of this joint venture is going to be SoftBank itself.

Google Maps bakes in Gemini to improve navigation and hands-free use

While driving, users can now ask Gemini to answer questions about places of interest on their route, return results about other topics (like sports or news), and even perform tasks like adding events to their calendar.